U.S. patents issued for such devices fall into two categories: (1) The harness-type harmonica holder typified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,328 of Mar. 9, 1965 issued to E. Haile, and (2) harmonica stands, typified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219 issued Jul. 15, 1980 to D. Hubbard, as well as other patented designs discussed below.
Devices such as those similar to the Haile harmonica holder, U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,328, are ordinarily suspended from around the musician's neck and have the problem of impeding not only the general movements of the performer, but more importantly, impeding the performer's ability to achieve levels of musical virtuosity similar to the levels of virtuosity attainable by the same player when holding the harmonica by hand. The primary reasons for these impediments are that the neck harness-type harmonica holders are rigidly set to a horizontal axis which is difficult for the performer to modify without some degree of undesirable physical contortion and which horizontal axis is often not sufficiently similar to the preferred individually distinctive horizontal axis of the harmonica and the resulting mouth-to-harmonica alignment which naturally occurs when the harmonica is hand-held by the performer. Further, the impediments to general mobility and attainable virtuosity exist because the neck harness-type harmonica holder attaches the harmonica to the performer's body, and thus the harmonica tends to move slightly ahead of the player as the player moves the mouth and head to the right and left while playing the various harmonica's pitches. This characteristic tendency inherent to the neck harness-type harmonica holder greatly limits the speed and accuracy with which the player can perform on the harmonica. This limitation is especially noticeable during the performance of styles or interpretations that are melodic rather than chordal in their musical nature. For many players, this renders the neck harness-type harmonica holders unusable in the performance of their preferred styles of music. Also, such harness type devices do not allow the performer to acquire the stylistically desirable tonal-timbre characteristics that are obtained when a harmonica is hand-held closely to a microphone, and which sounds are the preferred sounds among performers of styles of music that are characteristically electronically amplified and/or electronically processed. Notwithstanding these many deficiencies inherent to harness-type harmonica holders, improvements to their design continue to be made, as demonstrated by the grant of U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,001 on Apr. 8, 1997 to Pasin et al. for their adjustable arm mechanism.
Various harmonica stand designs have been proposed to overcome some of the deficiencies inherent to harness-type harmonica holders, but these designs have generally been complicated, cumbersome, unsightly, and limited the performer's ability to instantly switch back and forth between singing into the microphone and playing the harmonica, or to quickly switch harmonicas during a performance. For instance, the prior art of the Hubbard harmonica stand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219 of Jul. 15, 1980, attempts to solve some of the deficiencies stated above, but in the attempt involves the manufacture of numerous separate parts which are subsequently fitted together into an entire microphone stand assembly as well as a harmonica mounting assembly, which harmonica mounting assembly alone comprises more than thirty separate parts. This has the disadvantage of being less economical to manufacture than are products manufactured according to the present invention. A further disadvantage with the prior art disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219 is that the harmonica mounting assembly, along with its attached microphone, are not readily detachable from and re-attachable to the microphone stand, thus restricting the performer to a stand-held use of the device, which limits the creative staging options available to the performer. A still further and considerable disadvantage with the prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219 is in the solution to the problem of satisfying the necessity for rapid replacement of harmonicas, which rapid replacement is essential to performance due to commonly frequent changes in musical keys and styles of playing. As is referenced in U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219, column 1, lines 63 through 66, the rapid replacement of harmonicas in the use of said prior art device requires that the user of the device “have a number of harmonicas clamped in seats” and further specifies that rapid replacement is accomplished by reason of a wing nut and an associated slot for replacing seat assemblies and the harmonicas attached thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219 also employs the use of two microphones, one for vocals and one for the harmonica. In addition to being doubly expensive, this arrangement creates more complicated audio mixing and necessitates using an additional input at the audio mixer, as well as more cabling or a wireless transmitter. The two microphones system is aesthetically undesirable, and prone to instability due to extra weight on the microphone stand.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,213 issued Aug. 9, 1983 to Hubbard describes a harmonica holder comprising a leather shroud covering the microphone, which again uses a relatively complex spring-loaded clamping structure to hold the harmonica directly in front of the centerline of the microphone. Like the structure described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,219, the complex and cumbersome structure described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,213 would not allow the performer to sing into the same microphone, because it is covered by the structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,234 issued Feb. 5, 1985 to Strnad, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,277 issued Oct. 8, 1985 to Strnad, both describe a clamping enclosure with bolts and nuts to secure the harmonica to the structure and enclose the microphone inside the structure, so that all the air coming out of the harmonica is trapped inside the structure and forced into the microphone. This complex structure is designed for the specific purpose of amplifying the sound of a harmonica, and would not allow the performer to also sing into the microphone, which is enclosed inside the structure, or to quickly remove and replace or change the harmonica during a performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,321 issued Sep. 17, 1985 to Miner describes what is essentially an extruded C-clamp that surrounds the harmonica and pinches the harmonica between the clamping surfaces of the C-clamp, and is attached to the microphone by a complicated corrugated clamping mechanism. The Miner device is quite large and would substantially hide the performer's face while playing the harmonica, creating a poor stage presence. Further, the plastic C-clamp structure disclosed in Miner is prone to wear out and loose its holding strength, or to be too loose or too tight generally, and thus difficult to use in practice. Moreover, the performer could not sing into the microphone, because the Miner structure covers it up.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,091,408 B2 issued Aug. 16, 2006 to Thibodeau uses set screws to fix a particular sized harmonica into a slot formed in a piece of PVC pipe that has an end-opening directed generally toward a microphone. This device is cumbersome looking, its cantilevered design formed out of weak plastic is prone to rotate and bend, and it locates the performer's mouth away from the microphone, in fact shielding the microphone from the user's mouth. This design would also distort the sound of the harmonica, which is played into a PVC pipe such that the sound waves are turned 90 degrees and exhausted toward the microphone out the end of the pipe. In that respect, Thibodeau is similar to U.S. Pat. No. 2,945,408 to Terlinde issued Jul. 19, 1960, which used a similar but more robust structure to convert a microphone into an electric pick-up for a harmonica.
All of the above prior solutions are complicated and costly to produce and/or would not function well, tend to be unsightly and detract from the musical performance, limit the performer's ability to switch back and forth between singing and playing the harmonica and/or quickly switching harmonicas, and present the performer with greater difficulty in use than do the solutions afforded by products manufactured according to the present invention.